On this page, find a curated list of links to thoughtful meditations on scripture, from Forward and elsewhere.
Forward Day by Day highlights
Devotional essays by me
Highlights from sermons
For many, many more reflections on tradition, experiences, and beliefs of the Episcopal Church, see my page Those Crazy Episcopalians.
highlights from August 2013
to the present year
- Are we secure enough, yet? (08/2013)
- God the Artist, We the Work (02/2014)
- The Gospel of an ex-Convict (05/2014), striking reflections by a convicted murderer
- Hell and the Kingdom of Heaven: Meditations by Fr. Frank Wade (07/2014) one of my most-read blogposts
- Invite the Dragon to Tea (04/2015). Missionaries among the poor write from scripture and experience. Is Jesus a buddy? a judge? always the same, as if dead?
- Seeds and Weeds in the Gospel of Matthew (06/2016) unusual readings of two parables
- Peace is More Than Tranquillity (08/2016). Three authors reflect on prayer, prisons, and peace.
- Laws Manifest Love (09/2016) focuses on work by Jonathan Erdman, a young writer in Alaska
- Images and Idols (09/2016). A mosaic is a metaphor for the church. Is our smart phone an "idol?" This ends with a kid's spontaneous wisdom when the rules of a game grew too many, "Let's just joy out!"
- Gospel for Educators (12/2016) is distilled from meditations by Richelle Thompson
- Scripture Flipped (04/2017) responds to meditations by Mike Marsh. He's especially good at getting us to see what we truly treasure in our own lives. Make a list of those who, like Jesus, have nourished us with their flesh and blood.
(Fr. Daron Vroon at our church also flips our perceptions of familiar Scriptures (06/2018).) - Forward Abounding Day by Day (06/2017) contains pithy meditations by Jerusalem Jackson Greer, who writes on a farm in Arkansas. Reconciling many opposites, she loves to show how "all things hold together" (Col. 1.17).
- Fear Not (06/2018) is a look back at the Advent issue. Is "tough love" a good term for God's wrath? This contains an appendix of good "action items" for EfM.
- Forward through Luke and Acts. Unusually, FDxD focused on two books. There are surprising reads of familiar stories: the paralytic through the roof, the dishonest manager, and Ananias's wife ("divorced" from understanding the church as a community). Reflections on Peter's "shadow" informed a dream that got me "grudging acceptance" from my own shadow side.
- Refuge in a Storm (07/2018), written on the cusp of a school year that I dreaded, reviews scriptures of impending doom and holding fast to what is true.
- August - October 2018. Focus on theological insights and psalms.
- November 2018-January 2019.
- New insight into Lent's origin story of Jesus, tempted after 40 days in the wilderness
- February-April 2020, "Faith in God is Never Abstract."
- August-October 2020, Violence in Scripture, Job, and Sirach
- November 2020-January 2021: Comfort Food
- Kitchen Reverential: My kitchen was my church during COVID; this issue (Feb-Apr 2021) suggests how a healthy church should be like a kitchen.
- August 2021: Meditations by Fr. Adam Trambley, plus response to the book he co-edited
- November 2021-April 2022 includes a little league anecdote given in response to Paul's sports analogy and thoughts from the present youth minister of my first church.
- May-June-July 2022 A rancher's experience relates to Scripture; what's expressed and left unsaid; the lectionary's "difficult" passages and creative juxtapositions.
- August-October 2022 Awww-inspiring images, here, involving donkeys and an infant, and an emphasis on "patterns of life."
- Nov-Dec 2022 | Jan 2023 finds comfort in harsh sayings, gives advice for taming demons in our own lives, and messages that appeal to youth or anyone else unsure of their community.
- February-April 2023 includes a science-fiction spin on the Holy Spirit.
- May-July 2023 focuses on new ways to appreciate some metaphors, and on the reflections of an African-American youth minister, living alone in NJ, whose life experiences resonate with mine.
- Aug-Oct 2023 features one author who's drawn to passages about fear, anger, and hatred, that we need not be ashamed of these feelings, nor stick with them; and another author who shows us how faith for Jesus is always "a body thing."
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by W. Scott Smoot
[The image is my adaptation of St. James' symbol the scallop shell to go with the parish's summer devotion book.]
- Interface: New Word for the Ancient Miracle of Text (04/2021) is my preface to the Lenten booklet of 2011. Text engages us with ancient authors and with each other.
- Blind Faith, Faith of the Blind (03/2014), my preface to the Lenten booklet of 2014. Is Bible commentary by lay parishioners the equivalent of blind leading the blind?
- Eating Holy Words (04/2021), my preface for the Lenten booklet of 2015. Our tradition tells us that text can nourish us.
- What's Toxic, Sticky, and Spreads? (06/2010) from Jeremiah 17:5-6 [T]he man who trusts in man…is like a shrub in...an uninhabited salt land. Like capital-S Sin, the blame for the 2010 Gulf oil spill spreads to all of us. Cleanup begins at Easter.
- Church was Made for Waiting (11/2011) from 2 Peter 3.8 With the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. Our church maintains a routine developed over millennia to sustain the Body of Christ. (This is one of my favorites.)
- Peace be within Thy Walls (07/2008) from Psalm 122, another favorite of mine, notes engraved memorials mounted on the walls of our nave. What has changed and what has remained constant during the centuries our parishioners have worshiped here?
- Biblical Revenge Fantasies (12/2011) from Psalm 55. 12-13 It is not an enemy who taunts me – then I could bear it – but it is you…my familiar friend. Revenge is sweet in Bible stories -- but then, what?
- God's People Grow Up from Romans 1:14 I am under obligation both to Greeks and barbarians (02/2013). Over thousands of years, the writers of scripture evolved in their understanding of God and neighbor; the process continues.
- Liturgy as Theatre (03/2013) from Phil. 3:1 To write the same things to you is not irksome to me. To re-enact the Holy Week liturgy as if it's important makes it so.
- Introverted Episcopalians Unite! (03/2014) from Mark 6.31 Come away to a lonely place. In an extroverted culture, our church gives sanctuary to introverts. Our liturgy and music create even more space inside us.
- It's Lent: Bon Appetit! (04/2014) from 1 Corinthians 11.22 What! Do you not have houses to eat and drink in? What hunger draws us to church, and how does church fill us?
- Rejoice in the Lord Always (07/2008) from Philippians 4:4, notes how readings for Wednesday in Holy Week, like a movie approaching its climax, show all the principle characters in dire peril.
- Bearing Fruit, Increasing in Knowledge (04/2008) Colossians 1.10, ...bearing fruit in every good work and increasing with knowledge of God. Spring blooms prepare for months in the hard ground of winter. God works under the surface of our dead routines.
- God Offers Water; Do We Drink? (06/2008) Jeremiah 2.13,They have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves... that can hold no water. Why do we so often choose foul water over fresh?
- Jesus and Church can Transcend Politics (06/2008) from John 8.12-20 Whoever follows me shall not walk in darkness. Could Jesus be elected to office in Cobb County, Georgia?
- Sacrificing Sons (07/2008) from Genesis 22.1-14 My father! ...Where is the lamb for the burnt offering? We're shocked by Bible stories of fathers sacrificing sons, but our sons lay down their lives for us all the time.
- The Truth Shall Set You Free (07/2008) from John 8.21-32. If we still sin and still worry about it, has the truth failed to do its job?
- Jesus and Dogs (01/2015) from Matthew 15.21-28 Even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters' table. An outsider plays the dog card to get attention from Jesus. It works in church, too.
- Logic and Faith: How to Judge Value? (01/2015) from Romans 11:29 For who has known the mind of the Lord? Written for Bastille Day in our summer devotion booklet, this piece raises alarms about the Age of Reason.
- God's Trumpet: A Shock to the System from 1 Thessalonians 4:17 We... will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. Assigned for the anniversary of Pearl Harbor, the "Rapture" passage has a dark resonance.
- You Have Kept the Good Wine Till Now (02/2015) from John 2.10. An aged parishioner's care for his little granddaughter both upstages and illustrates the sermon.
- You Cannot Be Christian by Yourself! (01/2015) from John 8.53-54 Are you greater than our father Abraham, who died? And the prophets died! Who do you claim to be? To know Jesus, we shouldn't rely on text alone.
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at St. James, Marietta
I've been a member at St. James since 1998. In the blog posts listed below, I reflect on sermons I've heard, most recent ones at the top of the list. Many are by Fr. Roger Allen, longtime rector of St. James, and many others are by Fr. Daron Vroon, associate rector. I pay tribute to each and offer links to their sermons at The Rector Retires; the Clerk Reflects and More than Skin Deep: Fr. Daron Vroon, the First Ten Years.
Here are sermons by others who've preached at St. James:
- Fable of the Fool's Stolen Donkey (09/2011)
- Belief in Things Unseen: Views of Trinity and Soul (05/2013)
- Blasphemy Against the Holy Spirit (06/2012)
- Ten Commandments as Ten Beatitudes (10/2008)
- "He Has Put Eternity in Men's Minds" (05/2006) Fr. Ray Gotko and Physics
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